HAMPTON — A Hampton Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday that the blood-alcohol level certificate of a man charged in a fatal wrong-way crash will not be admitted as evidence in his trial.

Jesse Evans Jr., 34, is charged in the deaths of Christopher Newport University freshmen Sierra Smith, 19, and Kimberley Brin, 17. The girls were traveling west on Interstate 64 when their car was struck head-on by Evans on Dec. 4, 2011, according to police. Evans is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, three counts of maiming by DUI and having two DUIs within five years.

Evans' trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday but was delayed due to a motion to suppress the blood-alcohol findings. Evans' attorney, Ron Smith, argued that because Evans was not arrested for drunken driving within three hours of the incident that the test could not be used as evidence against him. Evans was indicted by a grand jury on the DUI charges in August — eight months after the fatal crash. Hampton Circuit Judge Wilford Taylor ruled in favor of the defense.

Prosecutors filed a notice of appeal Thursday morning with the Hampton Circuit Court. The notice is the first step prosecutors must take to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Taylor suspended the case until the higher court makes a ruling. The trial was expected to start Thursday morning, but because of the appeal Taylor set the case for a status hearing in January.

Taylor's ruling means that prosecutors will have to depend on other evidence — outside Evans' blood alcohol level certificate — to support the DUI-related charges he faces.

Evans' blood-alcohol content the morning of the crash was 0.21 — nearly three times the Virginia limit of 0.08, according to a certificate of analysis from the Department of Forensic Science. This was the fourth time Evans was charged with DUI since 2004.

It's unclear why state police didn't charge Evans with DUI. Evans' blood was received by the Department of Forensic Science on Dec. 7, according to the certificate of analysis. On Jan. 9, Evans' blood was tested by the lab.

Evans, a Fort Eustis soldier, was driving a Chevrolet Tahoe the wrong way on I-64 near the Harpersville Road overpass at 2:49 a.m. when he hit the car containing the students, according to police. Three others who were traveling with the girls were injured but survived. Smith, of Newport News, died at the scene. Brin, of the U.S. Virgin Islands, died a day later.

State Police Trooper B.L. Stokes testified that she told Evans that he was under arrest for DUI at 3:28 a.m. while he was in his vehicle. Stokes said that she interviewed Evans at the scene and that he had told her that he had one beer around 11 p.m.

Stokes said that Evans' speech was slurred and that she could smell a "strong odor of alcohol" from his car. Evans' blood was drawn two hours after the fatal crash.

Ron Smith also argued that Evans was not placed under arrest properly by state police.

"Mere words of an officer stating to a suspect that he is under arrest are not sufficient to constitute an arrest … they have to exert authority on the suspect," Smith said after the hearing.

Stokes was called to the stand by prosecutors at least three times and questioned about her actions regarding the arrest. She repeatedly testified that she took no other action in reference to telling Evans he was under arrest for DUI. When asked by Smith if she used any physical restraint on Evans, Stokes answered no.

"Just telling someone that they are under arrest does not mean they are under arrest — not for the purpose of driving under the influence," said Smith, who added that in order for the arrest to be valid, police needed to either handcuff Evans, tell him that he wasn't free to leave, or somehow restrain him.

Smith based his argument on a 2006 Supreme Court of Virginia decision in a maiming by DUI case. The court overturned a Portsmouth man's conviction saying that his certificate of blood analysis was invalid because he had not been arrested within three hours of the offense.